Posted on 03/24/2010 11:09:55 AM PDT by smoothsailing
by David Croyle
Harrisburg is talking about last night’s cable show in Kittanning where the Republican candidate for the 12th Congressional District accused the state Republican Party chairman of collusion.
Bill Russell ran two years ago against John Murtha in his last election in 2008, raising $3.6 million and earning an impressive 42 percent of the vote. Following his loss, Russell announced he would run against him again.
Since Murtha’s unexpected death on February 8, a special election will now be held simultaneously with the Primary on May 18. However, while Russell is already on the Republican ticket for the May primary, Republican insiders rejected him as their candidate to run against Murtha staffer Democrat Mark Critz of Johnstown in the special election. Although Russell already has a district-wide organization in place and excellent name recognition from his last campaign, the GOP conferees voted by a 2-1 margin for Tim Burns from Eighty Four, Pennsylvania in Washington County to run in the special election.
Russell, appearing on Family-Life TV’s Talk of the Town, criticized state Republican Chairman Rob Gleason.
“Unfortunately we’ve got a state Republican chairman who has a direct conflict of interest and really had no interest in, one, either defeating Jack Murtha when he was in Congress or, two, in taking that seat,” Russell said, referring to Gleason’s ownership of an insurance agency. “His direct personal interest is in keeping that the status quo. The direct financial interest is the fact that his insurance company writes the insurance policies for many of the companies Mr. Murtha used to bring in, and he has a vested interest in keeping the status quo for that. It is really unfortunate because, one, he has a vested financial interest in going against the Republican party, two, in a recent news interview, he attacked me for doing too well in the 2008 election because that caused Jack to bring out the Democratic forces including Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton for six robo calls,and Barack Obama. With the turnout of the Democratic electorate to save Mr. Murtha’s seat, he says that actually led him to lose a state legislature seat. So he was angry with me for doing too well against Mr. Murtha.”
D. Patrick Mahoney in The Washington Times yesterday also criticized Gleason and conferees, alleging Burns’ financial fortune that tops nine figures will enable him to self-fund his campaign and also contribute to other campaigns as well.
“It’s an unfortunate reality of what’s going on. As unhappy as people may be about what is going on in Washington, we can’t change things in Washington if we don’t first change the way we do things here in Pennsylvania. With the populist support I have had, I was 30 points ahead in the polls in the Republican running, I’m the largest non-incumbent fund raiser in the nation, but yet they chose somebody else with a 7% name recognition.”
Because the special election will be held at the same time as the state’s Primary election, it will be possible for Burns to actually win and occupy the seat from May until November while Russell wins the Republican nod in the Primary. If Russell wins the Primary and also the General election in November, he could still become the 12th Congressional District’s choice.
Russell, a retired 82nd Airborne officer and Iraq War veteran, seemed undaunted by the politics surrounding the special election.
“My focus right now is running in the Primary and winning the November election,” Russell said.
The controversy - which smoothsailing neglects to mention - is that Russell has been asked and has refused multiple times to say he's supporting Burns in the special election or say he'll vote for Burns in the special election.
Russell & co. seem to think that they can't say they're supporting Burns in the special election and still compete in the primary. It's very irrational from my perspective, and self-defeating.
Have you been toilet trained?
There is no doubt that Rob Gleason is a corrupt, RINO, hack. However, other than Tim Burns has a boatload of money, I do not know anything about him. I’ve heard he’s actually pretty conservative. So if you have two conservatives who want the GOP nomination..... only one can win. In this case it was Burns. Unless someone can show me where Burns is a RINO, I think this is a very bad move by Russell, and only lessens the chances of us picking up this seat.
Burns is not some GOP insider but a Tea Party local who
won more GOP delegates.
Special elections never involve a formal primary because the costs too much for the local counties and plus the midterm primary is only 3 months away.
So why is Russell spreading false stories about
Burns ?
LOL!
This idiot just makes up stuff as he goes along.
When it’s pointed out he’s either a liar or completely inept he thanks us for proving his point.
I doubt there’s a rock big enough.
It’s a waste of time and bandwidth replying.
I guess I won the argument point by point .
the third grade level name calling has begun.
the Oligarchy gets antsy when the peasants and peons start getting uppity...
The Dem-Republican Good Cop-Bad Cop con routine is the longest running, most successful play of that con anywhere in the world.
The real game is DC versus Flyover Country. It does’nt come to an end until all in Flyover Country finally get it. IMHO, they are just starting to wake up.
Thanks for the ping.
Why are you so desperate for Russell to endorse Burns?
If Burns needs Russell's help to win, why did he get involved in this race in the first place?
Burns hasn't asked Russell to endorse his campaign to my knowledge, so where is all this nonsense coming from. It's getting to be ridiculous.
It’s called a write in vote.
The Republican establishment has to learn that it is no longer business as usual.
Honestly, I think this is another example of Republican elites that would rather lose with a “moderate” than win with a conservative.
the two candidates are very similar .
Burns just won so Russel is now smearing Burns with these phony claims of a rerun of the NY 23 situation.
Russell clearly wants Burns to Lose so he does not have to face the incumbent Burns in the real primary in just a few months.But many of these poster are just Obaam plants trying to do the divide and conquer routine. But , it would really help the tea party and GOP if a GOP person won the Murtha seat at this time.
On two occasions that I am aware of, enough people had heard about the meetings by word of mouth, that they were able to stop the sham in process.
The third time was the charm.
This same methodology is being deployed in multiple districts throughout the state.
PA is Gleasons little fiefdom and has been for decades.
We are Louisianna without the Music, or the water. Gleason is Huey Long without the charm. I see you are new to FR. Stick around, you'll learn plenty.
Russell clearly wants Burns to Lose so he does not have to face the incumbent Burns in the real primary in just a few months.
The special election and the primary election is on the same day!
I love you, mo.
Sure hope you’re a guy.
Whatever rope some of these folks are smokin’, they simply are NOT sharing!
Yep, I know most everyone knows the one about lowering oneself to an idiots level...
S/he’s experienced without a doubt.
Yes, that is PA special election law which you seem to know very well
and ts done to save the taxpayers money.
I am glad you decided that Burns is the person to support
and lets move forward together .
have a nice day.
ROTFLMAO!!!
That's the bee's knees, HC! :-)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.